An imperial U.S. government with outposts around the war pursuing nebulous “responsibilities” and “interests,” a presidency with all the trappings of royalty and far more power than the monarchs of old, and nefarious governance characterized by secrecy, mendacity, corruption, skullduggery, and body counts are exactly what the Founding Fathers feared. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human nature never changes. Neither do the only possible safeguards when fallible humans must govern themselves. To limit the scope of corruption and abuse, the government must be limited to the smallest it can be while still performing its essential functions. Power must be divided among the executive, legislative, and judicial functions and circumscribed through an intricate system of checks and balances. If Benghazi ultimately spurs popular revulsion against what our government has become, it will give some meaning to the heretofore senseless deaths of the four Americans killed there last September.